


Steps

by ENMP



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2029830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ENMP/pseuds/ENMP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke is determined to have a "normal teenage life". He figures out he can't over think this one and lets action decide the course of his life. Freshly moved back to Iwatobi Town, he realizes his scary face and demeanor doesn't make his goal any easier. This was going to be a rough ride. </p>
<p>Step 1 to a normal teenage life: Make a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steps

Sousuke couldn’t help how he looked. To Rin and Gou whom he’d grown up with, he was perfectly normal looking. But to everyone else, he might as well be a monster. Intimidating face, intimidating height, intimidating demeanor. A kid he just looked at while he strolled in the park had quickly high tailed it, whimpering to his mom.

Sousuke sighs inwardly. Rin tells him again and again that he should just smile more often and everyone would react to him more warmly, but he doesn’t seem to realize Sousuke’s problem.

Since they were young, swimming has always been their passion. Not that either loved it more than the other, but Sousuke just took a more serious approach. Hardened by competition and living in the busy world of Tokyo for most of junior/high school, not many opportunities were given for Sousuke to branch out in a social sense.

At his former middle school, times were tough. Being an impacted school, one had to maintain a very high grade average to even be enrolled in the school and the swim team was even more strict. It had a very good reputation for quality and was rigid with its team members.

If Sousuke wanted to become a serious contender in the sports world, he had to approach it intelligently. Almost every day would be the same, routine after routine. Go to school, tutoring after class, go to swim practice, finish homework before bed, and then repeat. Weekends offered a reprieve but Sousuke didn’t, he couldn’t take it. He would continuously decide to work out on those days off and continue to steadily improve his swimming technique.

Sousuke wasn’t particularly unfriendly so he did have some acquaintances, classmates who wanted to grab lunch or hang out after school. Unfortunately, he always politely declined, opting to study or practice instead. He felt this was for the best. He believed it.

Near the end of junior high, he made drastic improvements and consistently placed in swimming competitions. This was worth it. His dream was coming true.

As with any athlete, there was a point when he hit a wall and he didn’t know what to do. He had mailed Rin and hoped that his old friend would talk to him and help him, give him advice. However, he was not particularly surprised when no reply ever came. They hadn’t talked in almost 3 years at the time, even though Sousuke tried hard to keep in contact. At least in the beginning.

Like his mother always said, “No news is good news.” Sousuke took this to heart and changed his way of thinking. Rin was in Australia, probably improving by leaps and bounds and had no time for anything that might distract him from it. Coming to a sense of new resolve on his own, Sousuke entered Tokitsu High School and became one of the best swimmers easily. Continuing to improve his form and work ethic, he excelled in school as well as in the pool, becoming scouted in his second year after winning first in a high-scale event.

His dream was coming true. However, not every pro comes without its cons. He started noticing it his first year of high school. A lot of classmates from middle school continued onto the same high school so he wasn’t exactly alone, but he wasn’t exactly mister popular either. The lunch dates and invitations became less and less frequent until it had reached a point where Sousuke expected no one to talk to him during school unless they needed something like a pencil or an important due date for an assignment. What could be even more sad was that Sousuke felt ok with it. Or at least convinced himself he was. All he needed was swimming. The drive to keep on getting better until he reached the pros.

The thing that threw his plans off course was none other than his old best friend. The competition Rin had partaken in that summer was just at a regional level, but what he did made news that even Sousuke’s mom had heard about it back in Iwatobi.

He heard distant speculation from his hometown that Rin was finally back in Japan, but he didn’t get a call so it couldn’t be true right? His mom proved otherwise. The afternoon was as normal as every other day.

“Sou-chan! Did you hear?” she blurted out excitedly.

“Hi mom.” Sousuke grumbled, instinctively holding the phone away from his mom’s energetic chatter. He couldn’t help a smile from growing. He honestly didn’t know where his personality came from sometimes. His parents were both rather tiny and very upbeat so his tall stature and usual serious demeanor seemed like the odd one out. Nowadays, his family was a relief though he had to admit. They were the only ones able to bring out the rather hidden cheerful side to his personality. However ...

“Ah, hello to you too! Have you been eating- But no! You won’t believe it! Your friend! Rin! Rin’s back home!” She continued relaying gossip information to him at a neck breaking pace but he already stopped listening.

His eyes widened. His breath hitched. And then his smile grew. He didn’t even care that Rin didn’t call him when he came back to Japan. Interestingly, he didn’t really care all that much about Tokyo right now. All he wanted to do was to go back home. And so he went.

It all kind of happened too fast. He didn’t even really give too much thought about it until he was actually on the plane. After an hour long session with his mother on the phone concerning his studies, his apparent “very lax state of human interaction” as his mother put it, and swimming, she asked him a simple question.

He answered yes, and she did what all mothers did best. She pulled strings with god knows who and everything was in order. It was an odd time in the school year but he was able to transfer, paperwork very easily and surprisingly handled. He didn’t even question how his mom got him into the very prestigious Samezuka Academy, the very same boarding school Rin happened to be in. Reunions were quick and simple, and Sousuke had reestablished connections that never even seemed to be lost. So now he was here.

Sousuke realized that moving back to Iwatobi and adjusting to a simpler lifestyle was going to take some time. It was even a bit of a culture shock. The biggest change was the fact that it was very … quiet there. Eerily at times. Tokyo was always bustling and loud. He felt like he always had something to and was busy at all times. Here he had a lot of time. An abundance even. School work came to him easier in Iwatobi Town and having been scouted already, his mother convinced him to take more time off of swimming in order to concentrate on other things in life, if at least mentally. This was where the problem was. Sousuke didn’t really know what to do with his time.

Sometimes he would hang out with Rin which was refreshing. It’s been a while but Rin and his sister seem to be the only ones Sousuke naturally feels comfortable enough around to be himself. He knows its because they grew up together. Therefore his natural stoic personality front, which hides his extremely shy and awkward personality, doesn’t make an appearance. But Rin was the new captain, so he was busier than ever.

Sousuke was left to his own endeavors. Sousuke didn’t really mind because he didn’t want to disrupt his friend’s focus so he took the time to start taking walks around campus. No destination in mind really, but he eventually happened upon a nearby park. Trees were green, birds chirped, all the stereotypical nuances were provided and he found that he liked it. Places like these were rare in big city Tokyo so it soon became a regularly frequented spot for him.

But, walking eventually led to thinking, which led him to his current dilemma. Sousuke started out thinking about why he moved back so easily. Living his whole life almost in serious competition mode, he didn’t even realize that he missed out on having a “normal teenage life”, once again in the words of his mother. When he got scouted, that was one of his first thoughts. The pressure alleviated just that tiny bit, giving him a hint of breathing space. And then, learning that Rin was back home triggered something.

He never really felt lonely from lack of friends growing up, but knowing that his one and only friend was near made him all the more aware of the empty space inside of him. He suddenly wanted to fill that void. The force was so strong and sudden that he hopped on the quickest chance to get back home and attempt a more fulfilling life. Swimming was great, but that only made up one part of him. Sousuke can’t go through his entire life with just that could he? This led to the conversation he had with Rin in their dorm room just an hour ago.

“Hey Sousuke, why don’t you hit up any of your friends from Tokyo? See if they wanna hang out? We’re on break ya know, take advantage.” Rin’s voice was muffled as he was looking through his drawers for something.

“Huh, did you say something?” Sousuke lazily lifted up his head to peer down at the redhead on the bottom level of their bunk beds.

“Huh!? Ya know, friends! Go see them!” Rin repeated in feigned annoyance. When he didn’t hear a response other than a grunt, he stared up with quirked eyebrows. It stayed quiet for a while as they caught eyes.

“...It’s cause of your scaryass face.” Rin finally smirked. Sousuke’s eyes shifted and glared back.

“Yea, that one.” Rin laughed and went back to looking through his drawer. He found the shirt he needed and went out to return it to a friend, giving an indefinite time that he would be back.

Sousuke knew that Rin was just joking around, but he suddenly felt the urge to look at himself in the mirror. He waited until he knew no one was going to come back and walk in on him. His eyes. Droopy, kinda narrow. Eyebrowed shaped down. His natural placid expression. He had to admit that he did look kind of mean. He also took note of his extreme height. Even in Tokyo, he easily towered over the others in his age group and he felt the slightest discomfort in the fact that he stuck out like a sore thumb, height and body width wise. Working out came natural with sports and puberty and he considers himself lucky as a swimmer to have such a wide build, but he couldn’t help feeling self-conscious at times.

His mom called him handsome manly, but name one teenager that believes everything their mother says and doesn’t feel shy about their appearance.

His encounter with the child just now had solidified it. Sousuke was naturally intimidating. And that troubled him because he didn’t want to be. Was that why people stopped approaching him in high school? Was that why he was never able to make friends? Was that his fault? But how can it be his fault that he simply didn’t meet anyone that connected with him on a level that got past his tough exterior? Should he have tried harder… or tried at all? Rin told him he should smile more, but its hard when you don’t know that many people that can make you want to give one. Sousuke had tried forcing a smile earlier in his dorm room as a test, but it simply looked terrifying so he was not ever going to do that again.

“... Look. A scary man.” A meek child’s voice brought to Sousuke’s attention that his face had frowned into a grimace from the not too pleasant mental discussions he was having with himself. Great, now he’s scaring little kids in the park left and right by just thinking too hard. Sousuke sighed again, starting to get irritated. He gathered a deep breath.

“AAAGHHHHHH!!!” He threw his arms into the air to match the intensity of his frustration. He probably looked like a crazy man, but he didn’t feel that was too far off of a perception he was already projecting. This thinking thing was not working out too well for him.

Summoning great willpower, he relaxed his face and stared forward in determination. He had come to a resolution. No more overthinking. He was just going to go with the flow and see where that takes him. Even when they were kids, Rin was the first one to talk to Sousuke and that was the start of their friendship. Which meant ...

First Step: Make a new friend. On my own.

As soon as that thought nestled into his mind, he heard a rustling from above. A sudden fall of leaves piqued Sousuke’s curiosity as well as his eyebrow as he looked up at the tree above. It was shaking.

Narrowing his eyes, he was able to make out a large shadow perched dangerously on one of the branches. Quicker than he could see the branch snapping, said shadow collided with him and knocked him straight into the ground.

There was a sharp pounding in his head and his breath grew ragged. With the wind literally knocked out of him, Sousuke barely kept consciousness as he tried to identify the large man on top of him that prevented him from taking deep breaths. Taking longer than it should have, Sousuke eventually fought through the throbbing on the side of his head and recognized the tuft of olive green hair. He remembered meeting as kids at a swimming competition.

Apparently, even God felt for his plight. So through a holy act of what can only be called divine intervention, had sent Makoto Tachibana into his lap.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading my first fic! I had binge watched Free! and immediately fell in love with SouMako ^_^ Please tell me how you liked it and any feedback is greatly appreciated in becoming a better writer. I hope you all enjoyed chapter 1! Sorry it's kinda short but it shall become lengthier if you guys think the pacing is off :D
> 
> I know there's a lot of explanation in this chapter, but since I didn't really know Sousuke yet since he hasn't appeared too much in the anime, this is my way of crafting the character for the purpose of my story. Don't worry, from here on out it becomes a lot more dialouge-y because he'll have someone to interact with. (His true love XD) For all the SouMako fans out there!


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